Because the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 are located in what is now known the West Bank, government officials in Germany refuse to provide written assurances that the Dead Sea Scrolls would be protected from confiscation by the Palestinian Authority as their own. The Scrolls have been scheduled to go on exhibit at Frankfurt’s Bible Museum since 2015 but will remain in Israel unless the German government reverses course and agrees to provide the required protections for these national treasures. The Palestinian Authority has attempted to claim ownership of the Dead Sea Scrolls and has been reportedly planning to demand that UNESCO order Israel to surrender the Scrolls, despite that fact that they are written in Hebrew and support the literal text of the Tanakh, or Old Testament as we know it today.

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Did You Know…?

Aliyah is the word that describes the return of the Jewish People from the exile in the Diaspora back to the Land of Israel. The word Aliyah is derived from the verb "laalot" which means "to go up", or "to ascend" in a positive spiritual sense. A person who makes Aliyah is called an Oleh, meaning "one who goes up".